DELMAR — As we all gear up for the holidays and holiday shopping, scammers are ramping up their efforts now, too.
When it comes to shopping, experts say use your credit card, not your debit card, in case your card is compromised.
While gift cards are popular, they are for gifts, never for any kind of payment.
“The scammers will use this time to kind of sneak the stolen gift cards through the system without getting as much attention because there’s already such a volume of gift cards being purchased,” said Berkshire Bank First Vice President Tina Pickup, head of Security and Fraud Investigations. “People need to remember that no legitimate company is going to ask you to buy gift cards to make a payment.”
“If someone on the phone is asking you to buy a gift card, it’s a scam, and stop right there, hang up,” she continued, adding that she sees that kind of scam all the time.
Pickup flags dozens of scams every week.
Berkshire Bank tellers on the front lines are trained to ask questions about suspicious activity, all to help protect the customer.
Pickup says it’s better to use a bank’s app, than to google to get to a bank’s website.
“Bank sites are spoofed all the time and when they spoof online it is very, very good. You cannot tell the difference between a legitimate Berkshire Bank site and a spoofed Berkshire Bank site.”
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